What is the difference between Have Been and Has Been?

Has is a word used as a present tense form of the verb have. Has is applied with the third person singular nouns. The word is used in the present perfect form of a verb in the third person in the sentences. For example, “she has given a book of poems to her boyfriend.” “He has gone to New York to see her.”

In both sentences, you will note that the present perfect forms have given and have gone used in the third person, namely, she and he. The present perfect continuous tense has been as in the sentences. Have is used as the current tense form for plural pronouns and nouns, e.g., you, I, we. And they.

Have been is an adverb used to form the present perfect tense, and then followed by a present participle, which is the present continuous tense. This adverb means that an action is occurring continuously and has not yet been completed at this time.

For example, “ I have been going to the gym regularly” suggests that I have gone regularly to the gym, and I am continuing to go to the gym. It may also express a fact, which is a truth that does not alter in the present. Had been is following similar rules, but for the past perfect continuous tense, as opposed to present perfect.

In this instance, had does not change depending on the subject (whether it is singular or plural). It is always had. For example, “He had been in the news for pulling that stunt.” The action here was in the past, and it has now ended in the present.

Have been and has been meaning the same thing. They are both used in the form of present perfect continuous. When a word is used in such a form, it means something in the past that has occurred is still going on. For "have been," it is not always used that way.

Sometimes it can be separated by another word. For example, "Have you been to the new store on Greenbriar Parkway"? Has been being almost always used in that context. An example of using has been in a sentence is "Joe has been so good in school that Mary took him to get ice cream."

Before you can understand the major differences between "have been" and "Has been," you must understand how they are used and what types of pronouns the two go with. For first-person pronouns, we have "I, me, mine," as its singular form, while “we, us, our,” and “ours," are the plurals for the first-person pronouns. All of these pronouns usually go with "have been."

For example, I have been expecting you since last week. Another example: we have been banned from taking part in the examination. For second-person pronouns have been being used mostly to form a present perfect continuous tense.

For example, you have been eating too much lately—however, the major difference between the two lies in their usage with third-person pronouns, for third-person singular pronouns such as “her, his, its, he, her, she, him,” "has been" should be used. However, for third-person plural pronouns such as them, theirs, they, etc. "Have been" should be used.